Patently Female: From AZT to TV Dinners, Stories of Women Inventors and Their Breakthrough Ideas

Product Description

Discover the trials & triumphs of great female inventors

Astrolabe
Automatic Dishwasher
Barbie Doll
Buffered Aspirin
COBOL
Cotton Gin
Disposable Phone
Drip Coffeemaker
Fabric Softener Sheets
Hang Glider
IV Fluids
Jell-O
Kevlar
Mars Rover
Nystatin
PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)
Protease Inhibitors
Rolfing
Smallpox Variolation
Space Suit
Spic & Span
Tract Housing
Vacuum Canning
Windshield Wipers
Zig-Zag Sewing Machine
Zovirax

and many, many more!

Reviews for Mothers of Invention by Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Ptacek

“It’s a fascinating and gratifying book..It gives us a positive view of women’s inventiveness, from the frivolous to the noble.”
-The New York Times Book Review

“It is the wide spectrum of female humanity and ability in this book that makes it an especially valuable addition to the growing popular library on the accomplishments and work lives of women.”
-Los Angeles Times

“An informative collection of talent, trivia, and history, Mothers of Invention will interest most anyone. More importantly, though, it will serve to inspire girls and women of all ages. For that reason, it belongs on the shelves of schools and public libraries everywhere.”
-Tampa Tribune

“Wonderful..A book to be dipped into and sampled at one’s leisure.”
-The Chicago Biweekly

“This fascinating volume will find a place in the browsing sections of both adult and YA collections.recommended.”
-Library Journal

One of the “Best Books for Young Adults,”
American Library Association, 1988

From Publishers Weekly

In their sequel to Mothers of Invention, Vare and Ptacek explore female innovators a role history has often failed to record, let alone reward. The first U.S. patent was awarded to a woman, Hannah Slater, in 1793, for perfecting cotton sewing thread. But the authors quickly demonstrate that women’s inventions aren’t limited to the home. Both the brassiere and the jockstrap were invented by women. Can’t do without that cordless phone? Thank Terri Pall. Interested in voting reforms? Susan Huhn invented the most reliable and mobile voting machine. The brilliance of physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking is transmitted through computer technology invented by Martine Kempf, Leslie Dolman and Carrie Heeter. And Hawking studies the universe in good company: Jocelyn Bell discovered the pulsar, and women invented the Mars rover and the space suit. Dr. Gertrude Elion’s immunosuppressants make lifesaving transplants possible, including bone marrow transplants, which were Dr. Suzanne Ilstaad’s revolutionary treatment for end-stage cancers and anemias. The major AIDS-fighting drugs, AZT and protease inhibitors, were also invented by women. Of course, not all women’s inventions are so dramatic witness the TV dinner, Jell-O, tract housing and Barbie. Vare and Ptacek detail how women’s ideas like the cotton gin, automatic sewing machine and even the Brooklyn Bridge have often been attributed to men and how history books and museums like the Smithsonian and the National Inventors Hall of Fame have ignored women’s achievements. The book’s lighthearted, colloquial style makes it ideal for classrooms, but the lack of specific years for many of the inventions is irksome. Photos.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Vare and coauthor Greg Ptacek are enamored of inventors and their amazing stories of perseverance. An informal sequel to
Mothers of Invention (1988),
Patently Female records some improvement in the recognition of women innovators, a development they’re determined to encourage, and their conviction infuses their book with energy and pride. Women have always been inventors by necessity, as evident in the tales of secretary and single mom Bessie Nesmith, who gave the world liquid paper (and a rock star), and Mary Anderson, the inventor of the windshield wiper. And onward they march, the clever and resilient women inventors of Scotchguard, Lactaid, the first computer